MARS - SKY NIGHTLY

Jul 16, 2013 (Voice of Russia)

The primary task of the new Mars rover, which NASA is to send to the Red Planet in 2020, is to find traces of life on Mars. The designers will borrow the genera...

Third Drive of Curiosity's Long Trek Covers 135 Feet

Jul 16, 2013 (JPL)

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove 135 feet (41 meters) on Tuesday, July 9, the third drive of a journey of many months from the "Glenelg" area to Mount Sharp. L...

Opportunity Making Progress Toward Solander Point

Jul 12, 2013 (JPL)

Opportunity is in good health. On Sol 3351 (June 27, 2013), the rover drove over 393 feet (over 120 meters), heading toward 'Solander Point' on the rim of Endea...

DNA-sequencing chip could be sent to Mars to search for signs of life

Jul 11, 2013 (UPI)

U.S. researchers, in a step toward analyzing Mars for signs of life, say they've shown a gene-sequencing chip can survive space radiation. Scientists at the Mas...

Is Mars mission Indian rocket's silver jubilee flight?

Jul 10, 2013 (IANS)

Immediately after the launch of India's first navigation satellite, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials said the space agency is gearing up for ...

Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Trek Toward Mount Sharp

Jul 10, 2013 (JPL)

With drives on July 4 and July 7, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has departed its last science target in the "Glenelg" area and commenced a many-month overland jou...

Science Team Outlines Goals for NASA's 2020 Mars Rover

Jul 10, 2013 (SPX)

The rover NASA will send to Mars in 2020 should look for signs of past life, collect samples for possible future return to Earth, and demonstrate technology for...

NASA's next Mars rover will advance hunt for past life

Jul 09, 2013 (AFP)

The next robotic rover to explore Mars in 2020 should scour the surface of the red planet more closely than ever for signs of past life, a NASA science team sai...

Opportunity's Improbable Anniversary

Jul 03, 2013 (SPX)

When NASA's Mars rover Opportunity blasted off from Cape Canaveral in 2003, many onlookers expected a relatively short mission. Landing on Mars is risky busines...

Dry run for the 2020 Mars Mission

Jul 01, 2013 (SPX)

A film director looking for a location where a movie about Mars could be shot might consider the Atacama Desert, a strip of land on the coast of South America w...

Opportunity Clocks Up 37 Kilometers Of Roving Mars

Jul 01, 2013 (JPL)

Opportunity is in good health, although the robotic arm elbow joint potentiometer is acting up. On Sol 3346 (June 22, 2013), the rover continued the trek toward...

Curiosity celebrates one-year Martian anniversary

Jun 24, 2013 (UPI)

For exactly one year now, the beloved Mars rover Curiosity has delivered knowledge to NASA scientists and joy to science lovers across the globe. "One year?" re...

Mars had oxygen-rich atmosphere 4,000 million years ago

Jun 21, 2013 (SPX)

Differences between Martian meteorites and rocks examined by a NASA rover can be explained if Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere 4000 million years ago - well b...

Billion-Pixel View of Mars Comes From Curiosity Rover

Jun 21, 2013 (JPL)

A billion-pixel view from the surface of Mars, from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, offers armchair explorers a way to examine one part of the Red Planet in great ...

ExoMars 2016 Set To Complete Construction

Jun 19, 2013 (ESA)

ESA's mission to Mars in 2016 has entered the final stage of construction with the signature of a contract with Thales Alenia Space at the Paris Air and Space S...

Opportunity Recovers From Another Flash-Related Reset

Jun 19, 2013 (JPL)

On sols 3332 and 3333 (June and June 9, 2013) , Opportunity performed a 'touch 'n go' two-sol plan, using the robotic arm on the first sol to take Microscopic I...

Study: Mars may have had ancient oxygen-rich atmosphere

Jun 19, 2013 (UPI)

A British scientist says new findings suggest Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere more than a billion years before Earth developed its own. An examination of met...

Mars Water-Ice Clouds Are Key to Odd Thermal Rhythm

Jun 14, 2013 (JPL)

Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found that temperatures in the Martian atmosphere regularly rise and fall not just once each day, but ...

Marks on Martian Dunes May Reveal Tracks of Dry-Ice Sleds

Jun 13, 2013 (SPX)

NASA research indicates that hunks of frozen carbon dioxide - or dry ice - may glide down some Martian sand dunes on cushions of gas similar to miniature hoverc...

UH Astrobiologists Find Martian Clay Contains Chemical Implicated in the Origin of Life

Jun 13, 2013 (SPX)

Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa NASA Astrobiology Institute (UHNAI) have discovered high concentrations of boron in a Martian meteorite. When...